BL Premium reports that the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has sent shock waves through the industry in announcing plans to scrap by March 2021 the pared-down schemes and primary health-care products used by low-income families.
CMS registrar Sipho Kabane issued a circular on 4 December, saying no low-cost benefit options would be permitted going forward, and no more products based on exemptions to the Medical Schemes Act would be allowed after March 2021. Products that will be affected include bargaining-council medical schemes that cover workers in industries such as transport and fishing, which have for decades been allowed to provide less cover than traditional medical schemes. Without an alternative, the demise of such products could leave hundreds of thousands of families without access to private health care. The move will also throw a spanner in the works for medical schemes and insurers that have been developing cheap products aimed at low-income workers. Many of these products are subsidised by employers and, at a few hundred rand a month, cost a fraction of traditional medical-scheme cover. The CMS said it was developing a new and more affordable prescribed minimum benefit package with a strong emphasis on primary health care, but industry sources are sceptical it will be in place by the 2021 deadline. The exemption framework had created opportunities for companies to offer products that were not in consumers’ best interests, Kabane said. "Our major concern is that they overpromise and underdeliver," he claimed.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
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